At the age of 13 I attended the surgery of my school dentist to undergo the extraction of a molar. The dentist was, to my
young mind no different than all the others I had seen over the years. I had never suffered any real discomfort up to that
point.

The injection was OK but I am referring to over 40 years ago!

With much struggling and trauma the dentist managed to dislocate my jaw on the right side and I was in obvious agony.

I did not attend another dentist for 20 years until I had an accident that broke all the front teeth on the upper jaw.
I had nightmares in the run-up to the appointment and drugs from my doctor. The dentist could not have been kinder but a
sweaty and exhausting experience was had by all! Another 10 years passed before I could steel myself to making an appointment,
in pain by diseased teeth.

Recently I have had my last teeth removed from my upper jaw and am experiencing getting used to a plate but at least I
will never have to have them attended to again!

I have a few teeth left on my bottom jaw including the one that caused all the trauma all those years ago and according
to my, present understanding dentist, will probably keep it until my end.

I would definitely not want to repeat the experiences but always insist with a new dentist that the very first appointment
is used purely to explain why I hate the majority of dentists. To anyone else having similar problems, please take heart,
there are dentists out there who are willing to go out of their way to help, if they can, it is just a problem finding them.